Financing Student Housing
As college students prepare for fall classes, some of their parents or grandparents will be studying up on the real estate markets near campus.
Valerie Adelman, a wealth manager and a principal of the Financial Asset Management Corporation in Manhattan, says many of her clients have invested in property near colleges for family members to use for a few years, reclaiming it for themselves afterward.
Spreading Around Your Retirement Wealth Tax Free
Heirs of Pablo Picasso, who died in 1973 in France without a will, paid estate taxes through the nose — by forfeiting the artist's masterworks to the French government.
And there are ways to lessen other types of taxes — capital gains, for one — by being smart about gifts and inheritance, explains Valerie Adelman, a certified financial planner, accountant and money manager in New York, who specializes in taxes.
Advisors Question Prepaid College Plans
It sounded like a marvelous deal when prepaid state tuition plans first rolled out: Pay for your child’s college tuition now at a particular school at a fraction of what the actual cost will be years later when she attends. “Most people didn’t want to take that bet,” says Valerie L. Adelman, a financial advisor at New York-based Financial Asset Management Corp. “Regardless of the amount of the investment, they just didn’t want to be locked into a particular school.
Scott Kahan, president of Financial Asset Management Corp., says that if parents and their future college-bound child are really locked into one particular state school, then investing in a prepaid tuition plan is a legitimate option. “If there are no if, ands or buts that they’re going to that school, then that’s something definitely worth considering if it makes sense,” he says.
- CBS New York - March 28, 2012 watch the video
- "Mega Millions Hits Record-Setting Jackpot Of $500 Million" Read the Article
Scott M. Kahan, CFP® is featured on CBS New York
On the other hand, there is the mild lament from planner Scott Kahan, CFP®, president of Financial Asset Management Corp., about the costs of the tech revolution. And he doesn’t mean in dollars. In the 1980s, when Kahan was teaching the CFP certification curriculum at New York University, a communication skills unit was part of the CFP 1 class, but has since been dropped. “It was all about asking the right questions, what to look for in body language, and how to listen and really hear what the client was saying,” says Kahan. “You just can’t get that through an email, a text message, or the client going onto a portal. How many times have you unconsciously ascribed a tone of voice to an email or a text?”
Retirement Shortfall Risk Making College Saving Tougher, Even For Affluent
Financial planners are helping affluent families confront a financial quandary that most families didn't face 30 or 40 years ago: How to plan for both their retirement and their children's college tuition. “It really is a dilemma,” says Scott M. Kahan, a CFP® with New York-based Financial Asset Management Corp (FAMC). "Because most people today obviously can't do both together.